Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Gloria Krupnick Wolfson
Committee Member
Patrick Chambers
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
agency mission, assumptions, client-directed counseling, client feedback, client voice, client-centered counseling, collaborative learning, counselor-client alliance, counselor-client partnerships, counselor training, counseling effectiveness, counseling methods, counseling practice, counseling relationships, deficit-based approach, evaluation, Family and Youth Counseling Agency, Inc. (FYCA), feedback, goal setting, healthy lives, hierarchical framework, knowledge acquisition, partnership quality, postmodernism, professional counseling, quarterly evaluation, self-efficacy, strength-based assumptions, strength-based counseling, strength-based mission, strength-based perspective, strength-based practice, support systems, weekly meetings, youth counseling services
Abstract
According to their mission statement, employees of the Family and Youth Counseling Agency, Inc., (FYCA) operated on the assumption that all individuals possessed the ability to solve their own challenges and live full and healthy lives when support was available. In practice, however, agency counseling reflected a deficit-based, hierarchical framework, wherein counselors expanded on clients’ deficits and failings, defined the goals of counseling, and regarded counselors as more knowing than clients about how best to change. By discrediting the client’s voice, counselors failed to put into action the agency’s guiding principle.
To develop a strength-based practice, counselors met on a weekly basis, collaboratively learning, practicing, and processing strength-based and client-directed counseling methods and related concepts. To ensure effective partnerships with clients, counselors received feedback from clients on 4 aspects of the counselor-client alliance.
Subsequent evaluation of counselors’ progress indicated increased knowledge and use of strength-based and client-directed counseling, as evidenced by improved scores on a test of strength-based assumptions, a measurable shift in counselors’ preference for and use of strength-based counseling concepts, and a quantifiable upgrading in quality of counselor-client partnerships based on clients’ feedback. Counselors’ success in moving toward the strength-based perspective allied FYCA’s professional counseling practice with the agency’s strength-based mission and vision.